The Media Project is a network of mainstream journalists who are Christians pursuing accurate and intellectually honest reporting on all aspects of culture, particularly the role of religion in public life in all corners of the world. It welcomes friends from other faiths to such discussions and training.

Dec 9 Green evangelicals on page one (surprise)

At
some point, the whole “moderate evangelicals are starting to care about
Creation” story is going to get old, but it sure does not seem that
this will happen anytime soon.

Don’t get me wrong. This is an important story. However, it is also
an example of an old truth: The quickest way for a conservative to get
on page one of a major newspaper is by saying something critical of
powerful conservative leaders or groups.

The Green evangelicals stories are also linked to coverage of the
rising Christian left, and that’s another important story. And there
are many, many doctrinally traditionalist Christians (Can I see some
hands raised?) who are tired of seeing journalists link conservative
moral stands with GOP position papers on every issue under the hot sun.

However, the best mainstream stories on these trends tend to note
that these pro-Green evangelicals (What does one need to believe to be
an anti-Green evangelical?) rarely forsake their conservative stands on
other moral issues. They are broadening their agenda, not editing it.

However, the hook that some evangelicals are embracing a position
advocated by the mainstream press is simply catnip for journalists.
That story is heading to page one. Pronto.

This brings us to the latest high-profile Washington Post report on this hot story:
“Warming Draws Evangelicals Into Environmentalist Fold.” It really
helps that reporter Juliet Eilperin has a story hook with a church that
is clearly, under anyone’s definition, an “evangelical” stronghold. We
are talking about Northland Church in Longwood, Fla.

A key question, however, is this: Where did this trend come from? We are told about an activist named Denise Kirsop:

Her conversion to environmentalism
is the result of a years-long international campaign by British bishops
and leaders of major U.S. environmental groups to bridge a
long-standing divide between global-warming activists and American
evangelicals. The emerging rapprochement is regarded by some as a sign
of how dramatically U.S. public sentiment has shifted on global warming
in recent years. It also has begun, in modest ways, to transform how
the two groups define themselves.

And this brings us to the key figure in the story:

“I did sense this is one of these issues where the
church could leadership, like with civil rights,” said Northland’s
senior pastor, Joel C. Hunter. “It’s a matter of who speaks for
evangelicals: Is it a broad range of voices on a broad range of issues,
or a narrow range of voices?”

Hunter has emerged among evangelicals as a pivotal advocate for
cutting greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming
Earth’s climate. A self-deprecating 59-year-old minister who can quote
the “Baby Jesus” speech that Will Farrell delivered in the 2006 movie
“Talladega Nights” as readily as he can the Bible, Hunter regularly
preaches about climate change to 7,000 congregants in five Central
Florida sites and to 3,000 more worshipers via the Internet. He even
has met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to talk about environmental
issues.

While he remains in a distinct minority, and a number of others on
the Christian right disparage his efforts, Hunter and others like him
have begun to reshape the politics around climate change.

In
other words, this man is smart and hip. He hangs out with people from
Great Britain. And media people, too! As you would expect, that leads
to trouble.

The “greening” of Hunter and others still elicits scorn
from many evangelicals, including Focus on the Family’s James Dobson
and Prison Fellowship’s Charles W. “Chuck” Colson. They question
whether humankind really deserves the blame for Earth’s recent warming
and argue that their battles against abortion and same-sex marriage
should take precedence.

And there is the giant hole in the story.

The Post team that produced this story does not tell us how
Hunter and the members of his flock who have gone Green link their
beliefs on this topic with any other doctrines, including moral
teachings that have been central to the Christian faith for 2000 years
or so. The implication is that this flock has gone soft on the life
issues and on moral theology about sex.

In this day and age, it just isn’t fair — to readers or the people
quoted — to leave this hole in the story. If there is a clash there,
cover it. If these people are linking their conservative beliefs with
this stand on the environment, if they see this new stance as
consistent with their faith, then let them say it.

It is one thing to say that Hunter wants to move beyond
“below-the-belt issues” such as homosexuality and abortion. It is
something else to hint that he has changed his beliefs on basic
doctrines. Silence just won’t cut it, in this case.